Message posted by lone wolf on August 08, 2004 at 21:59:10 PST:

The Radio Netherlands website is a good place to get short wave radio reviews. If you are considering mil air sideband, the sound will always be a bit funny with a Sony due to the 100hz step size. The 2010 is considered a better radio and it cheaper, but kind of bulky.

The Sony synchro is not really all that good, so if you look around the Radio Netherlands website and see something else that catches your fancy without synchro, don't think you are missing something. Synchronous detection is the kind of this where if you don't do it right, you are probably better off not trying. Sony radios need a very strong signal for the sync to lock, and when it does, it howls a bit. I have a table top shortwave with synchro that works, and I rarely use that feature.

I generally bring a Sony 7600G with me to the ranges, mostly to listen to Coast to Coast. The 7600G has been replaced by the GR, but it won't do sideband very well either. The step size is way too big (like 1Khz), but they provide an analog fine tuning. It would take about 3 paragraphs to explain how to use that kind of radio for sideband, and I'm not sure it is worth it. Incidentally, you really need a 2khz to maybe 3khz filter for sideband, which these portables lack.

I haven't used one personally, but the Tentec 320 gets good reviews. The problem (or not) is that it needs a notebook computer to run it.

It has a 2.5Khz filter in it for sideband, plus DSP filters. It has 10hz tuning steps, so sideband will sound normal. Technically the radio is triple conversion, rare for shortwave, but the 3rd IF is DSP. If they made one with real controls, I'd probably get one for portable use. It's just too much hassle to deal with the laptop computer to run a radio while in the field. Besides being power hungry, the laptop ruins your night vision and generates RF interference.

In Reply to: Re: question about scanners posted by roger on August 08, 2004 at 19:31:28 PST:

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